Railway-bridge signal



3Sheets-Shat 1 Filed August 15, 1925 zfmdrew fiji ia fiemmz;

March 23 1926.

1,577,837 A. A. MATHESON I RAILWAY BRIDGE SIGNAL Filed August 15, 1925 3 Shaets--Sheet 2 gnventoz 149217.220 fi/Maflwaon.

March '23 1926.

. 1,577,837 A. A. MATHESON RAILWAY BRIDGE SIGNAL Fil'ed August 15, 1925 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 flwzirew .14. Mai/264072.

G can.

Patented Mar. 23, 1926.

nits rates PATENT ANDREW A. MAT'HnsoN, or DENVER, coLoRAno.

RAILWAY-BRIDGE SIGNAL.

Application filed au ust 15, 1925. Serial No. 50,385.

T all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, AND EW A. MATHESON, a citizen of the United States, residing at the city and county of Denver and State of Colorado, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Railway-Bridge Signals; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the characters of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this application.

This invention relates to improvements in signals for railway bridges.

Our railways employ in their construction a large number of bridges. Some of these span large rivers such as the Mississippi and the Ohio, and some conduct the railway across dry ditches that carry water only after a storm or during the periods of melting snow, while other bridges cross. streams of intermediate sizes. It frequently happens that the dry ditches and small streams become raging torrents as the result of a cloudburst or heavyrain, with the result that the bridges become undermined and weakened to, such an extent that they collapse from the weight of a locomotive or railway train. Serious and fatal wrecks have occurred from this cause.

It is the object of this invention to pr0 vide a semaphore signal at the approaches to a bridge and provide means for. auto inatically operatingthe semaphore, at times of high water, thereby apprising the engineer offthe possibility of danger,

My invention briefly described consists in providing each bridge with two semaphores, one at each approach, 1I1d1n821I1S thatwill set the signal to caution when the water reaches a level that is liable to cause damage; to, Fdan'ge'r if the water exceeds this level,

' and to stop if the water exceeds the second level. f

My invention can be. most clearly described and W111. bev most readily: understood when .refereneeie had to theeaccgrnnanyigg; drawlng in which... one embodiment thereof eases fli Fig. 3 Fig. 1.

Fig. i is a view of the upper end of the semaphore, said view being taken looking in the direction of the arrow 4 in Fig. 2.

Fig. is a section taken on line 5-5 Fig,

Fig. (i isa view similar to 33 showing a modified form of operating. device.

Fig. 7 .is a section taken on line 7-7 Fig. 6, and

Fig. 8 is a section taken on line 8-8 Fig. 6.

Numerals 1 and. 2 represent abutment piers that support the edges of a railway bridge. The bridge has been shown more or lessdiagrammatically as consisting of two built up I-b'eam girders 3 and 4; whose ends rest upon the up 381 surface of the piers and which support the railway ties 5 that 1111111111 support. thera-ils A vertical su port 7 which is preferably a concrete .pier Such as has, been illustrated or an. iron beam or postimay be substituted for the pier. Secured to the. side of. the. pier that faces up stream, are three brackets 8 each of which has a cylindrical bearing 9, adapted tov support a cylindrical shaft 10 in such a manner that it can, be rotated. Secured to the shaft. 10 between each pair of adjacent brackets 8 are vanes 11 which areeach provided with spaced bearings, 12 and 18. The bearings 12 rest.v on the upper ends of the cylindrical bearings 9. The bearings 9 have shallow notches l i. which, are engaged by lugs 15 that project from the lower end of each bearing 12 and which hold the vanes normally in a predetermined position. The bearings. .13, with the exception. of the one on the uppermostvane, have cams 16 that are.. al clapt'eclj,to engage the lower end of the pivoted pawl 17 in the manner shown in Fig; Securedft'o the shaft 10 by means of pins. 18- are cylindrical ratchet members 119. theatre. adapted to; be. engaged by the pawls 20 (Fig.5) that are pivoted to the vanes 11- by] fil il nfigof rive 21. f. will. he apparent 0111 an. inspection of Eigs..2',' 3 and" ether when the muesli move is a View taken along line 33 gl sses-sang. 5; v thapawisieo ivnieagage with' tlie ratchets' 1a an ifratate cthe shartji'o. The vanes are mainly. held. in the pesition e z re'i tl sal' wise rotation by means of pawls 17 in the manner clearly shown in Fig. 3. When the lowermost vane is rotated, as it will be when the water rises suiliciently to exert the requisite force, it will rotate the shaft 10 and at the same time the cam 16 will release one of the dogs or pawls 17 so that the next higher vane will be free to rotate when the water reaches and engages it. The movement of the second vane releases the third vane, etc. It will be apparent that the rotation of each ofthe vanes rotates the shaft 10'through a corresponding angle and that the shaft makes a total rotation that is equal to the sum of the angular rotations of the several vanes. The upper end of shaft 10 has a drum 22 about which a few turns of the cable 23 are wound. This cable extends to and is connected-with a semaphore signal in such a manner that it moves the signal arm each ofthe vanes operate. The semaphore is supported on a post 2st and consists of a casing 25 that houses a lamp 26. The housing has a lens 27 through which the light will pass when the lamp is lit. Pivotally secured to the housing 25 is a semaphore arm 28 to one end of which is attached a quadrant 29 that is provided with three colored lenses that have been indicated bynumeral 30. A grooved pulley 31 is connected to the other end of the shaft that carries the semaphore arm and to this pulley the cable 23 is connected. When the signal apparatus is-unaffected by the water the lens 2'7 will be covered by a portion of the quadrant in the manner shown in Fig. 2. lVhenthe first or lowermost vane 11 is rotated by the water, it

rotates the shaft 10, in the manner explained above, and this movement is then transmitted to the semaphore arm 28 by means of the cable The semaphore is then moved to the first or caution position. During the first rotation of the pulley 31 an electrical conductor '82 engages the contacts 33and closes the circuit that controls the lamp" 26 thereby lighting the same. Vl henthe signal arm is at any of the three positions, one of the lenses is positioned directly in front of the lens 27, so that the engineer can see the signal even when he; cannot distinguish the position of the arm 28. The semaphore and lights are intended to be the same as now employed in standard railway'signal I practice and have therefore been shown only in a diagrammatic way. If the water rises above the lowermost vane 11 and reaches a sutliciently high level to rotate thevane directly above the shaft 10 is again. rotated] through a given angle and this in turn sets the semaphore to the, next or dangei" position. Should thewater reach the thirdand uppermost vane the signal will be moved to stopdpositi'on. ris it is necessary to have a signal at each end-*of-thebridge another cable init ated y numeral. 3% is ound.

about the shaft 10 at 35 and transmits the movement to the shaft 36 that is pivotally mounted in the bracket 37 secured to the down stream side of the bridge. From the upper end of shaft 36 a cable 38 extends to and is operatively associated with a signal.

device such as the one just described. These signals are operated in unison so that the same signalis displayed at each end of the bridge. g

In Figs. 6, 7 and 8 I have shown a slightly modified construction of the operating means, which, however, is merely the equivalent of the one described above; Instead of a single vertical shaft 10 I-have provided three short shafts 39, 40 and all, that are rotatably' secured to the pier 7 by means of brackets 4-2. These shafts are connected by sprocket chains a3 and a l in such a manner that they all rotate in unison. Shaft ll has two drums {L5 and 46, about which the cables 23 and 34 are wound. lVhen shaft ll is rotated the semaphores will be rotated inthe same manner as when the shaft 10 is rotated. To each of these horizontal shafts I attach a vane 11 that is free to rotate about the shaft in one direction but which is provided with a pawl'at? that engages the ratchet 4 8 on the shafts and rotates the shaftswhen the vane moves in the other direction; A lug 49 is secured to the pier? near each shaft and each vane has an arm 50 rigidly secured to it in such a manner that it will be engaged by the lug 459 after the vane has been rotated through a certain angle and thereby prevent the vane from oscillating after it has been v first operated. 'When the Water level reaches the lowermost vane 1t Wlll cause it to swing thereby rotating the shafts and moving the signals to caution? v The arm 50 will prevent the vane from returning. lNhen the water level reaches the second vane this will rotate and move thesignal to danger position and if the water reaches the uppermost vane the signal Wlll be moved to stop position; i 7

Having now described my invention, what I claim as new is:

1. In a railway bridge'signal, in combi nation, a semaphore located at an approach to the bridge and means for moving said semaphoreto different signaling positions .as the water rises above predetermined levels. W

, 2. In a railway bridge signal, in eombi- ,nation, a semaphore located at an approach to the bridge, means located underneath the bridge" for affecting the semaphore when the water rises above predetermined leiels, said means comprising vanes mounted so as to be adapted to rotate about a pivot and means for changingthe setting-of the semaphore whenever one of the vanes s rotated.

3 Ina railway bridge signalfin combia em phore l cat d. the. approach.

purpose of to said bridge, said semaphore having an in operative or safe position and a plurality of operative positions which may correspond to cautionf danger and stop; means located beneath the bridge and at different levels for moving said semaphore to successive operative positions as the water level rises, said means comprising vanes supported by means that permit them to move about a pivot when they come into contact with running water.

4,. A device for operating; a signal for the indicating the approximate maxii'num level of ater in a flowing stream which cons sts in a combination comprising a plurality of vanes mounted so as to be movable about pivots, each of said vanes being located at a different level whereby each of said vanes causes the rotation of a shaft as it moves in one direction and means connecting said shaft to a semaphore so that the latter is moved when the shaft rotates.

5. A bridge signal operating device comprising, in combination, a plurality of pivotally mounted vanes located at different levels above the bed of a stream, so that they will successively come into contact with the water as its level rises, a shaft mounted for rotation, means operatively connecting each vane to said shaft so that the vanes will rotate the shaft when they move in one direction, and means connecting said shaft with a signal so that the latter will be moved when the shaft rotates.

6. A. bridge signal operating device comprising in combination a plurality of pivotally irounted vanes located at different levels above the bed of a stream, so that they will successively come into contact with the water as its level rises, a shaft mounted for rotation, means comprising a pawl and ratchet device for operatively connecting each vane to the shaft so that it will rotate the shaft when it moves in one direction, and means for connecting said shaft to a signal so that the signal will be moved when the shaft is rotated.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

ANDRElV A. MATHESON. 

